EV Tax Credits to Spur More Vehicle Sales Are Entering a Critical Phase

The US government is pressing to complete new rules on tax breaks for electric-vehicle purchases by an end-of-year deadline as auto companies seek guidelines that help qualify as many vehicles as possible.

The Treasury Department is leading the effort after the August signing of a law that extended an existing $7,500 tax credit through 2032. The EV plan, included in Democrats’ climate, health and tax-policy package known as the Inflation Reduction Act, included new requirements for U.S. battery sourcing that auto makers have warned will make it difficult for models available today to be eligible.

The changes to the EV tax credits come amid sharp price increases for new vehicles. New-vehicle prices were up 10.1% in August from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department, outpacing the overall annual inflation rate of 8.3%. The average electric-vehicle price is more than $60,000.

EV sales have tripled in the past two years but still account for just 6% of U.S. vehicle sales. Auto companies are pushing to develop and sell more models with goals to greatly increase the percentage of EVs manufactured and sold.

The tax credits are intended to spur electric-vehicle sales and encourage the auto industry to shore up domestic supply chains for materials needed to manufacture EVs. The Biden administration and Democrats see speeding up the pace of U.S.-based production and purchases of electric vehicles as important parts of their broader push to lower greenhouse-gas emissions and address climate change.

The Treasury Department, in its regulatory guidance for the credits, could help make the new requirements easier for auto makers to meet, industry and advocacy groups said. Issues the groups would like to see addressed include how the government calculates whether the sourcing requirements have been met and how auto makers will certify they are in compliance. By law, Treasury must issue guidance for the new requirements by Dec. 31.

Starting in 2023, the law imposes two requirements for an electric vehicle to be eligible for the full tax credit. First, at least 40% of the value of crucial battery minerals such as lithium and nickel must have been extracted or processed in the U.S. or in countries with which the U.S. has a free-trade agreement, or have been recycled in North America. Second, at least 50% of the value of the vehicle’s battery components must have been manufactured or assembled in North America. The percentage thresholds increase in subsequent years.

Dan Bowerson, a senior director at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group whose members include several auto makers, said Treasury should issue streamlined guidelines so that auto makers can easily understand the rules as they plan how to meet the requirements.

“We’re going to be pushing for the guidance to be as clear as possible, so that everyone is looking at the same thing,” Mr. Bowerson said. “We don’t want one manufacturer to say, ‘We’re taking the percentage value of the battery components to mean this,’ while the others take it to mean that.”

Tom West, deputy assistant secretary for tax policy at the Treasury Department, said the agency is trying to determine what discretion it has in writing the rules. It is collaborating with other agencies, such as the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, to understand issues that fall outside of the department’s expertise. He said Treasury is also working to define what constitutes a free-trade agreement for the purposes of tax issues, given the critical-minerals requirements.

“It is a significant challenge, but it is a challenge we are eager to take on because this legislation is something that we’ve been fighting to get for a generation,” Mr. West said about writing the rules.

Auto manufacturers likely will find it challenging to comply with the new rules immediately. The industry has historically been reliant on China and other countries for EV batteries and the processing of minerals that go into them.

Industry and advocacy groups said Treasury should also issue guidance on requirements that go into effect in 2024 and 2025 that make EVs ineligible for the tax credit if they have batteries or critical minerals in batteries that are sourced from a so-called foreign entity of concern, such as China.

“That’s an element of this that needs clarification for sure,” said Genevieve Cullen, president at the trade group Electric Drive Transportation Association. She said members of her group have questions on how the rules would apply when companies are based outside of countries such as China, but have subsidiaries with related EV operations there.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation has said it would take several years for any EVs now available for purchase in the U.S. to qualify for the full credit, given the new sourcing requirements.

Abigail Wulf, of the Washington-based advocacy group Securing America’s Future Energy, said another question is how Treasury will set calculations for the critical-minerals requirement, because the value of a mineral changes from when it is mined compared with when it is processed. She also said industry likely could meet the battery-component requirements more quickly if the guidance emphasized the manufacturing or assembly location for battery packs—rather than the location of production of battery cells—because many auto makers were just now beginning to increase their domestic facilities for the latter.

For some vacationers, the ideal getaway involves $1,200 ozone therapy or an $1,800 early-detection cancer test.

Call it the longevity vacation. People who are fixated on optimising their personal health are pursuing travel activities that they hope will help them stay healthier for longer. It is part of a broader interest in longevity that often extends beyond traditional medicine . These costly trips and treatments are rising in popularity as money pours into the global wellness travel market.

At high-end resorts, guests can now find biological age testing, poolside vitamin IV drips, and stem-cell therapy. Prices can range from hundreds of dollars for shots and drips to tens of thousands for more invasive procedures, which go well beyond standard wellness offerings like yoga, massages or facials.

Some longevity-inspired trips focus on treatments, while others focus more on social and lifestyle changes. This includes programs that promise to teach travellers the secrets of centenarians .

Mark Blaskovich, 66 years old, spent $4,500 on a five-night trip last year centred on lessons from the world’s “Blue Zones,” places including Sardinia, Italy, and Okinawa, Japan, where a high number of people live for at least 100 years. Blaskovich says he wanted to get on a healthier path as he started to feel the effects of ageing.

He chose a retreat at Modern Elder Academy in Mexico, where he attended workshops detailing the power of supportive relationships, embracing a plant-based diet and incorporating natural movement into his daily life.

“I’ve been interested in longevity and trying to figure out how to live longer and live healthier,” says Blaskovich.

Vitamins and ozone

When Christy Menzies noticed nurses behind a curtained-off area at the Four Seasons Resort Maui in Hawaii on a family vacation in 2022, she assumed it might be Covid-19 testing. They were actually injecting guests with vitamin B12.

Menzies, 40, who runs a travel agency, escaped to the longevity clinic between trips to the beach, pool and kids’ club, where she reclined in a leather chair, and received a 30-minute vitamin IV infusion.

“You’re making investments in your wellness, your health, your body,” says Menzies, who adds that she felt more energised afterward.

The resort has been expanding its offerings since opening a longevity centre in 2021. A multi-day treatment package including ozone therapy, stem-cell therapy and a “fountain of youth” infusion, costs $44,000. Roughly half a dozen guests have shelled out for that package since it made its debut last year, according to Pat Makozak, the resort’s senior spa director. Guests can also opt for an early-detection cancer blood test for $1,800.

The ozone therapy, which involves withdrawing blood, dissolving ozone gas into it, and reintroducing it into the body through an IV, is particularly popular, says Makozak. The procedure is typically administered by a registered nurse, takes upward of an hour and costs $1,200.

Longevity vacationers are helping to fuel the global wellness tourism market, which is expected to surpass $1 trillion in 2024, up from $439 billion in 2012, according to the nonprofit Global Wellness Institute. About 13% of U.S. travellers took part in spa or wellness activities while traveling in the past 12 months, according to a 2023 survey from market-research group Phocuswright.

Canyon Ranch, which has multiple wellness resorts across the country, earlier this year introduced a five-night “Longevity Life” program, starting at $6,750, that includes health-span coaching, bone-density scans and longevity-focused sessions on spirituality and nutrition.

The idea is that people will return for an evaluation regularly to monitor progress, says Mark Kovacs, the vice president of health and performance.

What doctors say

Doctors preach caution, noting many of these treatments are unlikely to have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, producing a placebo effect at best and carrying the potential for harm at worst. Procedures that involve puncturing the skin, such as ozone therapy or an IV drip, risk possible infection, contamination and drug interactions.

“Right now there isn’t a single proven treatment that would prolong the life of someone who’s already healthy,” says Dr. Mark Loafman, a family-medicine doctor in Chicago. “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

Some studies on certain noninvasive wellness treatments, like saunas or cold plunges , do suggest they may help people feel less stressed, or provide some temporary pain relief or sleep improvement.

Linda True, a policy analyst in San Francisco, spent a day at RAKxa, a wellness retreat on a visit to family in Thailand in February. True, 46, declined the more medical-sounding offerings, like an IV drip, and opted for a traditional style of Thai massage that involved fire and is touted as a “detoxification therapy.”

“People want to spend money on things that they feel might be doing good,” says Dr. Tamsin Lewis, medical adviser at RoseBar Longevity at Six Senses Ibiza, a longevity club that opened last year, whose menu includes offerings such as cryotherapy, infrared sauna and a “Longevity Boost” IV.

RoseBar says there is good evidence that reducing stress contributes to longevity, and Lewis says she doesn’t offer false promises about treatments’ efficacy . Kovacs says Canyon Ranch uses the latest science and personal data to help make evidence-based recommendations.

Jaclyn Sienna India owns a membership-based, ultra luxury travel company that serves people whose net worth exceeds $100 million, many of whom give priority to longevity, she says. She has planned trips for clients to Blue Zones, where there are a large number of centenarians. On one in February, her company arranged a $250,000 weeklong stay for a family of three to Okinawa that included daily meditation, therapeutic massages and cooking classes, she says.

India says keeping up with a longevity-focused lifestyle requires more than one treatment and is cost-prohibitive for most people.

Doctors say travellers may be more likely to glean health benefits from focusing on a common vacation goal : just relaxing.

Dr. Karen Studer, a physician and assistant professor of preventive medicine at Loma Linda University Health says lowering your stress levels is linked to myriad short- and long-term health benefits.

“It may be what you’re getting from these expensive treatments is just a natural effect of going on vacation, decreasing stress, eating better and exercising more.”

EV Tax Credits to Spur More Vehicle Sales Are Entering a Critical Phase

Auto industry pushes Treasury Department to write rules that clearly spell out how electric vehicles can fully qualify, with as much flexibility as a new law allows

The latest trend in wellness travel is somewhere between a spa trip and a doctor’s appointment

Vitamins and ozone

What doctors say